New priests ‘a dynamic group’

Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan is excited about the eight men ordained May 30 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minn.

“They’re a very dynamic group and filled with the light of fire for evangelization,” said the rector of St. Paul Seminary, where the were trained. “They have a great desire to reach out to people — that’s certainly timely.”

Msgr. Callaghan said. “The Church is blessed to have these men who are filled with the Spirit.”

It was standing-room-only for the ordination Mass at the 2,500-seat Cathedral on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and downtown St. Paul, and the 100-year-old church gleamed in bright sunlight in what Archbishop John Nienstedt called “an occasion of joy and celebration.”

In his homily the archbishop invoked words of wisdom from both Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis in offering advice to the new priests. He urged them to “plunge deep” into Christ’s love “and give him him your love in return.”

The archbishop said, “What we offer the people of God is not the gift of ourselves, but the gift of God, of Jesus Christ working through our personalities, flawed at times as they may be.”

As Jesus is immersing himself in them, he told the newly ordained, “. . . never cease tone immersed in the truth of the Gospel, in the truth proclaimed by the Church’s magisterium, as well as in the truth that is found in self-less service to the poor, the sick, the lost, the forgotten, the stranger in our midst. Never put off until tomorrow the needs that come to your attention today, even if it means depriving yourself of something you justly deserve.”

About Bob Zyskowski

Bob is the Client Products Manager for the Communications Office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. A 42-year veteran of the Catholic Press, he is the former Associate Publisher of The Catholic Spirit. You can follow him on twitter or email him at zyskowskir@archspm.org.